PNP to look into crowd estimates

The Philippine National Police (PNP) said it would look into its conflicting tallies of the number of rallyists who took part in the Martial Law anniversary demonstrations on Thursday.

PNP deputy spokesman Vimelle Madrid said in a press briefing in Camp Crame on Friday that the police would verify the number of pro-government supporters who were in Plaza Miranda the day before.

The police initially claimed that there were around 16,000 pro-government rallyists in Plaza Miranda. However, in the police report, there were only around 7,000.

“We would verify that. However, we have dedicated personnel yesterday who monitored. So far, that was the number they gave us,” Madrid said.

According to Madrid, only the police from Plaza Miranda gave a conflicting number of rallyists. She said that the figure the police in Plaza Miranda submitted to PNP was contradictory to the figure they claimed, which was 9,000 more.

“The Plaza Miranda police published the [16,000] number, yet what they submitted to us was not what they published,” Madrid said.

Madrid stood by the record that there were more pro-government rallyists than anti-government rallyists. She said most pro-government rallyists were concentrated in the National Capital Region.

“Based on the estimate, there were more pro-government rallyists especially in NCR,” Madrid said.